Keeping Healthy and Safe

About Keeping Healthy and Safe

This section contains information and advice on maintaining your independence whilst self isolating. There are links to official COVID-19 guidance, positive and uplifting articles on how individuals and communities are working together, ideas for socialising using technology, and also guidance for improving your physical and mental well-being while at home.

Keeping Healthy and Safe stories you may be interested in:

Mind for better mental health, has developed useful information to cope with being anxious or worried about the coronavirus and how it can be affecting you at this time. This might feel stressful but there are a lot of things you can try to help your well-being. Please do share this article with friends and families or colleagues in your workplace.

In November, octogenarian Russ Mantle became the first person in the UK to ride 1 million miles. The 82-year-old from Hampshire completed a five-mile trip from his Aldershot home to a cafe in Mytchett, Surrey, to reach the feat. Mantle rolled into Canal Cafe in Mytchett recording his millionth mile flanked by fellow cyclists.

104-year-old woman says continuing ed, dancing and positivity have kept her feeling young. Some say the secret to a long life is staying physically active, others say that it's maintaining a healthy diet. But 104-year-old Virginia Leitner, of St Charles, Missouri, says the real key is keeping up-to-date with the changing world and being creative. Leitner has taken classes to learn how to use a computer, sews, showcases her paintings and has even competed in a pageant.

Chilton resident Rod Alexander, aged 72, is planning to cycle 700 miles in seven days in memory of his wife Jacky, to raise money for Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity. Rod, who has lived in Chilton near Thame for the past 31 years, will complete the first 600 miles in six days around the undulating Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire countryside. The final 100 miles will be completed on a static bike on Saturday July 27 th outside the Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity Shop in Thame where he volunteers two days each week.

'What keeps me going? My patients,' says France's oldest doctor at 98. After 70 years, Dr Christian Chenay still wants to help people in the ‘forgotten’ suburbs of Paris. Christian Chenay, who celebrated his 98th birthday last month, is France’s oldest practising doctor. “I couldn’t possibly give up work,” he said in his small consulting room in Chevilly-Larue after treating his final patients of the day, an unwell toddler and a woman suffering from high blood pressure.

90-year-old woman graduates and proves it’s never too late to study. One inspiring lady has proved that you’re never too old to pursue your dreams. Lorna Prendergast graduated from the University of Melbourne last week, at the age of 90. The Australian received her Master of Ageing degree at the awards ceremony, accompanied by her granddaughters.

This 80-year-old gymnast is probably more flexible than you! When you think about hobbies for the elderly, gymnastics probably isn’t high on that list. But Marjorie Scholes is defying all expectations and is still leaping, tumbling and balancing on the gym floor – at 80 years old. The grandmother only started gymnastics when she was 76, and this month she came second in the 2019 Adult Gymnastics British Championships – over 45s category.